Saturday, February 25, 2006

A part-time judge and truck driver in Hildale, Utah, was removed from the bench Friday for having more than the usual number of wives. Walter K. Steed married his first wife in 1965, and proceeded to marry two of his sisters-in-law in 1975 and 1985. By 1995, he had evidently run out of sisters-in-law. Steed has 32 children by his three wives, which explains why he took the judging gig.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says his office won't prosecute bigamists unless some other crime has been committed.

"If you charge one where do you stop? You start prosecuting 10,000 people and have 20,000 kids go into the (child welfare) system?" Shurtleff said. [Link]

Shurtleff didn't mention any other laws Utahns with children can safely ignore.